The Pillars Of The World

making too much noise, which could draw someone’s attention.
    Ari put her hands on her hips. “Now see here, my handsome lad,” she said sternly. “Showing off your fifth leg might make your four-legged ladies roll their eyes and swish their tails, but it doesn’t impress me.
    ”
    A flash of panic swept through her. Why had she said that? Was this part of the fancy’s magic, to make a woman speak so brazenly?
    The stallion’s forelegs hit the sand. He snorted indignantly.
    Ari laughed. “There’s no need for you to nurse a bruised ego. I’m sure your ladies are most appreciative of your . . .” She waved a hand vaguely at his body.
    He snorted again.
    Ari’s chest tightened. Since it already bound her, she couldn’t fight the fancy’s magic. It would turn back on her if she did. So she had to find some harmless way to channel it. But, Lord and Lady, her body was becoming a stranger she couldn’t trust, and her thoughts were following unfamiliar paths. Even when she’
    d so foolishly believed herself in love with Royce she hadn’t felt like this.
    The stallion pawed the sand.
    Ari held out her hand and took a few steps toward the horse. “You are a handsome lad, aren’t you?”
    she said softly.
    The stallion regarded her for a moment before coming forward to sniff her hand.
    Ari remained still while he sniffed and lipped her palm, but when he began to lip her long, dark hair, she leaned back. “That isn’t hay.”
    He snorted softly, almost sounding amused.
    She’d never seen a gray-eyed horse before, Ari thought while the stallion pushed his muzzle under her cloak and snuffled her hip. In the moonlight, those eyes reminded her of her grandmother’s pewter vase that sat on the mantel.
    The stallion nudged her left pocket. He stiffened, made an angry sound, then leaped away from her. He laid his ears back and pawed the sand while he stared at her.
    Confused, Ari slowly reached into her left pocket. She withdrew the fancy wrapped in the brown waxed paper. Swallowing her distaste, she unwrapped it and dumped the two pieces into her hand.
    “It’s just a fancy, a brown-sugar candy with some love magic added to it,” she said quietly while she studied the horse. “I’ve checked it with every bit of magic I know, and there’s nothing in it that would do harm. Except the love magic if it’s denied, but the magic’s binding on the female, not the male. It won’t hurt you .”
    The stallion pricked his ears. He didn’t approach her, but at least he didn’t bolt.
     
    It won’t hurt you.
    The thought took root, making her a little dizzy. “I didn’t know what it was when Granny Gwynn dropped it into my hand. By then it was too late because, as soon as I touched it, I was bound to the magic. But Granny Gwynn did say the first male I met on the night of the full moon, not the first man .
    Oh, she meant the first man, but that wasn’t what she said .” That was the problem with all of Granny Gwynn’s spells. They were always phrased in a way that something could go wrong. But that might work to her advantage tonight. If she used the fancy based on what Granny Gwynn said rather than what was meant . ... “I don’t suppose sugar is all that good for a horse, but old Ahern gives his horses a lump of sugar as a treat now and then, and this isn’t much bigger.”
    Not giving herself time to think about what might happen if she was wrong about the importance of the spell’s wording, Ari stuffed the paper back into her pocket, kept the brown-sugar phallus in her left hand and held out the full-bodied woman in her right. She licked her lips, then took a deep breath. “With this fancy, I promise my affection from the full moon to the dark. This I swear by the Lord of the Sun and the Lady of the Moon. May they never again shine upon me if I do not fulfill my promise.”
    The stallion froze.
    Ari waited. The air seemed to get thicker, making it hard to breathe, making it hard to think clearly.
    There was something about the horse. Something that wasn’t quite right, but . . . He had beautiful gray eyes. And he was so big, so strong. Would he let her pet him, let her feel the ripple of muscles under that warm skin?
    She felt strange. Why did she feel so strange? Was the magic in the fancy doing this to her?
    Coming forward warily, the horse sniffed the fancy for several long seconds before he took it.
    Ari popped the other piece into her mouth and tried not to gag.
    It was just a piece of